Jimmy Dunnachie
Encyclopedia
James Francis Dunnachie, known as Jimmy Dunnachie, JP
(November 17, 1930 – September 7, 1997) was a British
politician from Scotland
. He served as a Labour Party
Member of Parliament
from 1987
until 1997
. He briefly served on the front bench as a Whip
but was not a prominent figure in politics.
and educated at St Margaret's School in Kinning Park
. His father was a ship's rigger and on leaving school he was apprenticed to Fairfield's yard on the Clyde before becoming a fitter at the Rolls Royce
plant at Hillington in 1953. He was already active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union as a shop steward, and only joined the Labour party in 1967.
Corporation in 1972 in Pollokshaws
ward. He worked on slum
clearance as Chairman of the Clearance and Rehabilitation Committee; he lost his seat in 1977 when the Labour vote in Glasgow slumped. From 1978 he transferred to Strathclyde
Regional Council and became Chair of the Social Work committee.
Running up to the 1987 general election
, Dunnachie was selected to follow James White as Labour candidate for Glasgow Pollok
by 50 votes to 41 for Dave Churchley. Churchley was a member of the Militant Tendency
and there was some surprise at his failure to win the selection owing to the extent to which the local party was dominated by Militant supporters. An earlier round of voting had seen the Militant delegates vote for Dunnachie over Bob Gillespie, a non-Militant left-winger, which was speculated as deriving from their belief that Dunnachie would be easier for Churchley to beat; however it caused resentment among Gillespie's supporters.
, withstanding a challenge from Tommy Sheridan
of Scottish Militant Labour who came second. In Parliament Dunnachie was a relatively quiet presence, usually allying with the left. He was appointed as an opposition Whip
in 1988 and served until 1992, but opposed Neil Kinnock
's move to drop Labour's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament. Initially he declared his intention not to pay his Community Charge
(or Poll Tax) although he was never prosecuted for the offence, and observers have concluded that he must have decided not to fight.
Dunnachie was a strong opponent of animal testing of cosmetics and of fluoridation of drinking water. His Catholicism showed in votes in favour of Bills which restricted abortion
and against any lowering in the age of consent
for homosexual
sex, and he also opposed a deregulation of Sunday trading
in 1993. He supported Tony Blair
in the Labour leadership election in 1994 (and John Prescott
as Deputy Leader). That year it was noted that he was one of the few MPs who had made no Parliamentary speeches in the previous year.
. This move made the selection in Govan much more open and eventually doomed the chances of Mike Watson
who was the sitting MP for Glasgow Central
, the nomination going instead to Mohammad Sarwar
.
In the event, Dunnachie died of cancer only a few months after the election.
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
(November 17, 1930 – September 7, 1997) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
politician from Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. He served as a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
from 1987
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
until 1997
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
. He briefly served on the front bench as a Whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
but was not a prominent figure in politics.
Early life
Dunnachie was born in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and educated at St Margaret's School in Kinning Park
Kinning Park
Kinning Park is a southern suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. In 1897 it had a population of 14326.-Political history:Originally a separate police burgh founded in 1871, it became part of Glasgow in 1905. It was the smallest such burgh in Scotland at just...
. His father was a ship's rigger and on leaving school he was apprenticed to Fairfield's yard on the Clyde before becoming a fitter at the Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
plant at Hillington in 1953. He was already active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union as a shop steward, and only joined the Labour party in 1967.
Political career
Dunnachie began his political career on GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
Corporation in 1972 in Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws is a district on the southside of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The housing stock mostly consists of some sandstone tenement housing, tower blocks and modern brick tenement-style buildings...
ward. He worked on slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
clearance as Chairman of the Clearance and Rehabilitation Committee; he lost his seat in 1977 when the Labour vote in Glasgow slumped. From 1978 he transferred to Strathclyde
Strathclyde
right|thumb|the former Strathclyde regionStrathclyde was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created by the Local Government Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc Act 1994...
Regional Council and became Chair of the Social Work committee.
Running up to the 1987 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
, Dunnachie was selected to follow James White as Labour candidate for Glasgow Pollok
Glasgow Pollok (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow Pollok was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 2005, when it was replaced by Glasgow South West...
by 50 votes to 41 for Dave Churchley. Churchley was a member of the Militant Tendency
Militant Tendency
The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964...
and there was some surprise at his failure to win the selection owing to the extent to which the local party was dominated by Militant supporters. An earlier round of voting had seen the Militant delegates vote for Dunnachie over Bob Gillespie, a non-Militant left-winger, which was speculated as deriving from their belief that Dunnachie would be easier for Churchley to beat; however it caused resentment among Gillespie's supporters.
Parliament
Dunnachie easily held the seat in 1987. He was re-elected in 1992United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
, withstanding a challenge from Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan
Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity....
of Scottish Militant Labour who came second. In Parliament Dunnachie was a relatively quiet presence, usually allying with the left. He was appointed as an opposition Whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
in 1988 and served until 1992, but opposed Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
's move to drop Labour's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament. Initially he declared his intention not to pay his Community Charge
Community Charge
The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
(or Poll Tax) although he was never prosecuted for the offence, and observers have concluded that he must have decided not to fight.
Dunnachie was a strong opponent of animal testing of cosmetics and of fluoridation of drinking water. His Catholicism showed in votes in favour of Bills which restricted abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and against any lowering in the age of consent
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
for homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
sex, and he also opposed a deregulation of Sunday trading
Sunday shopping
Sunday shopping refers to the ability of retailers to operate stores on Sunday, a day that Christian tradition typically recognizes as the Sabbath, a "day of rest". Rules governing shopping hours, such as Sunday shopping, vary around the world but some European nations continue to ban Sunday shopping...
in 1993. He supported Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
in the Labour leadership election in 1994 (and John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
as Deputy Leader). That year it was noted that he was one of the few MPs who had made no Parliamentary speeches in the previous year.
Govan selection
His attendance suffered as the Parliament went on due to persistent ill health. However Dunnachie did not announce his retirement and when his constituency was altered in boundary changes, declared his intention to seek selection in Glasgow GovanGlasgow Govan (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow Govan was a parliamentary constituency in the Govan district of Glasgow. It was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 2005, returning one Member of Parliament elected by the first-past-the-post system.The area which the constituency...
. This move made the selection in Govan much more open and eventually doomed the chances of Mike Watson
Mike Watson
Michael Goodall Watson, Baron Watson of Invergowrie, known as Mike Watson, is a former British Labour Party politician...
who was the sitting MP for Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow Central is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . In its current form, the constituency was first used in the general election of 2005, but there was also a Glasgow Central constituency from 1885 to 1997.- Boundaries :The Redistribution of Seats Act...
, the nomination going instead to Mohammad Sarwar
Mohammad Sarwar
Mohammad Sarwar is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament in Glasgow from 1997 to 2010, first for Glasgow Govan and then from 2005 for Glasgow Central. He was the first ever British Muslim MP....
.
In the event, Dunnachie died of cancer only a few months after the election.